Experior and Slornow's Spring/Summer Mentor Group-CLOSED (Page 82)

Michael/Jamie/Nate -  Great Job!  I'm currently back at work doing the graveyard shift for the next 7 nights so I will be looking forward to reading your race reports when things slow down a bit.

Rene, the bike adjustments seemed to have worked well.  I did a 90 miler today and felt much better (I was getting left trapezius pain).  He put on an extension to my aero bars thus extending my reach.  He also put the top spacer in.  It feels kind of high and I might end up removing it.  Definitely an improvement though.  Seems like a drastic amount of adjusting, so time will tell.  I also splurged on a $100 pair of Desot tri shorts and I had absolutely ZERO butt chafing/soreness issues.  Wow!  It was awesome!  How are you feeling about Florida?

Here are my monthly totals:

I have been awful at getting to the pool.  It is the hardest discipline for me.  I have to admit its my least favorite of the 3.  This is why I am a BOP'er and I'm GETTING BACK EXACTLY WHAT I PUT INTO IT!!!!!.  After this week of night shifts I will ramp up my swimming.  I really need to get myself motivated to get to the pool.  I actually do enjoy it when I'm there.

I am not able to reach the volumes I'd like to for IM training.  Work and family come first but I don't ever want to give up IM's.  I will plan on getting some halfs, and shorter in next year.  I am drawn to the longer events (maybe because I can cover up my slowness). 

OK, enough being hard on myself.  I had a great ride today!!!  I look forward to next month and the upcoming IM in Arizona.  Looking at my training logs, I think I may have to readjust my Arizona goal of 12:15 to 12:30-13:00.  I am always happy just to finish, but I do like to continue to improve.  My best IM to date is 13:08 at Kentucky.  Goog night all, Jim

Congrats Jamie, Nate and Michael!  Sounds like you all had good times (in both meanings of the phrase).  Also cool that you all were able to meet each other IRL.

Well, since Jimmy got it started (nice month btw...), here's my Sept.

For me, this was a really strong month, so I think I'm the best shape I've been in going into an Olympic distance race.  The bike miles were all hard, and my run times have been improving a bit.  Also lost a few pounds, though official month-end weigh in is tomorrow.

Had a good swim today (not as fast as Michael's, mind you), but a straight 1500 meter swim and while it is still a little on the slow side for me historically, it was at a constant pace throughout, so I've been making some progress this week.

Off to bed for me now!  Looking forward to some tapering this week so I can catch up on some house chores that have been overlooked this past month or two.

Stu 

Wow... that would be a record in Virginia masters.  That's world class speed.

Here are mine:

 I took it easy the last week, and had to take 4 days off for travel, but all in all, I'm ok with my volume. Now, I just have to keep it up for another couple weeks to close out the season! I've got the Rev3 Anderson Olympic on the 14, then a HM the weekend after.

Yeah he's the fastest masters swimmer in the state, and has several top ten national maters times.  Unfortunately for the rest of us, he can also bike and run (not up to his swimming standards, but very respectably).

Only reason my Sept totals aren't close to zero is because of this race I did...

My reply to Rene's question from before:

Probably the most aero will be to keep that bottle on the down tube and put a 'torpedo' bottle on your aero bars.  If you're going to spend money on a new setup, I'd use one of the aero bottles on the down tube as well.  I know of two types -- one by Bontrager and one by Specialized.  I have tried both.  Many people hate the Bontrager, although I found it fine.  But just because so many people dislike it (and you could end up being one of them!) I'd go with the Specialized bottle.  It is my favorite of the two.

I put concentrated sports drink in the aero bottle on the down tube, and water on the aero bars.  I sometimes dilute the sports drink in my mouth as I drink if is too hard to take by itself.  I swap out the water at aid stations as needed.  That setup works great for me.

Oh, sorry, I misread your message -- just noticed that you need two nutrition bottles.  I've read that a single bottle mounted behind the seat is good, but two is not so good.  Another option that often tests pretty well is two bottles on the frame, if you can get two on there.

I've found that the best way to mount a bottle cage to the aero bars is as pictured below, but you'd need to experiment with your own setup to see what works.  (I'm in the middle of working on the bike there, so this is not exactly my front end set-up, but the cage is as I mount it.)  I strongly recommend putting either a narrow cage (hence the Schwinn cage on my bike!) or an aluminum cage (that can be squeezed to make it a bit narrow).  The bottles that they hand out at aid stations tend to be slightly narrower than regular bike bottles.  You'll see that in my setup, I pull the bottle towards me.  Other people do it the other way -- a lot has to do with your specific setup, and especially how the computer is mounted.

If you don't want to mess with latex, you could try some of those ultra-thin racing tubes (butyl).  I actually used some at IMWI because of a latex tube fiasco when prepping my bike.  I thought they were pretty good.

You are doing all the right things.  I predict a good race for you.

Wow! Lots of really solid training in Sept. Here are my numbers..a little up on the bike and a little down on the run.

Swim            27600 yds             9hr42m

Bike              424.91miles           20hr59m

Run                84.32miles            11hr30m

Hope everyone has a great October!

Randy

Here are my numbers for September. My run volume more than doubled and I am getting back in the running groove. I am getting back to love running a lot and I am looking forward to the next run. My bike volume dropped a little bit this month due to the run increase and my swim volume is still not where I want it to be. 

Morning all.  What's going on today?  I've got a run and probably that's all.  I'm off to write a boatload of letters, now.

Swim at lunch then an easy run this evening.

Randy

Blanda-good work on the running. Great picture!

Randy

OK folks, here's a new topic. What other websites do you frequent? Don't have to be triathlon related but that's fine too. Maybe a handful of others you check regularly. As I type this I'm thinking "great, more ways to waste time I don't have". Oh well, here are a few of mine in no particular order.

www.slowtwitch.com  another tri site. Read the artciles and forum but rarely ever post

www.facebook.com  check it daily but rarely post

www.letsrun.com  mostly the message boards. Lots of discussion about HS and College track and XC. Never post

www.tracktalk.net  mostly the forums and mainly follow discussion about HS and College track and XC

www.huffingtonpost.com  "news", politics and such.

www.rolltide.com  Bama sports....mostly track and XC sites. ROLL TIDE!!!!

www.cnn.com  Home page....news and headlines

Well, that's more than a handful but gets the ball rolling.

Randy

Here are my websites:

BeginnerTriathlete, of course

The Verge I'm a huge gadget nerd, so I check this one throughout the day.

Slate A really good online magazine with news, editorials, etc.

The Awesomer A good place to find interesting videos

Devour Another good video site

Web sites:

Here, of course

slowtwitch.com (post occasionally)

letsrun.com (post very rarely)

strava.com (but only to upload workouts from time to time)

I am 'Experior' on both slowtwitch and letsrun and go by my full real name on strava.

Apart from academic sites (stuff I use for work), and sites where I go to pay my bills, that's it for regularly visited sites.  I don't do Facebook and I did Twitter for a very very short while, but no more.  For a while, my son and I were in to building robots, and we visited a site (letsmakerobots.com) about that regularly, but we haven't done that in a while.  Back when I was playing a lot of poker, I was a prolific poster on the forums at twoplustwo.com, but I haven't even visited there in probably over 2 years.

Good for you Rene! Love me some Blue Bell ice cream! Chocolate Chip cookie Dough is like frozen crack!

Randy